SLOWLY moving out of the World Health Organization tuberculosis (TB) watch-list, the Philippines continues to find innovations to attain the commitment to cut the coughing scare into half this year.
With 2010 as the halfway mark for the global plan to stop TB in 2015 as a commitment to the millennium development goals, health authorities during the World TB Day commemoration in Bohol resound the call for partnerships with sectors and forge alliances to accelerate the action.
The activity, brought by Provincial Council Against Tuberculosis (ProCAT) “is one of the strategies we make to widen the awareness of the alarming disease that goes beyond being a health concern to economic in nature,” points out Dr. Jude Doblas.
TB is hitting men in their most productive ages, agrees Imelda Ochavillo, who coordinates the Social Mobilization on Tuberculosis (SMT) project of the a civil society group present in Bohol.
In fact, during the TB Forum at the BQ Atrium March 24, resource persons composed of a doctor, a nurse, a representative from the National TB Control Program, an NGO and a volunteer all agree that social mobilization can beat time in the fight against tubercle bacillus.
“There is a rather strong need for social mobilization and relentless seeking for innovations to dent on TB, impresses Ochavillo who directs World Vision Development Foundation’s SMT project, and one of the forum convenors.
Despite an upgraded ranking from seventh to ninth in the new World Health Organization TB watchlist, the country remains to be one of the “22 high-burdened” countries in the list, the Department of Health revealed.
TB is still the sixth leading cause of death and illness in the Philippines, mouths Perla Cajolog, volunteer member of the TB Task Force.
Dr. Doblas, who is president of the local association of municipal health officers (AMHOP) here said “TB kills 75 Filipinos everyday.”
Now that TB-stricken individuals are becoming more open to seek consultation and treatment, the advocacy, communication and social mobilization on TB must be a perfect strategy to raise detection and cure percentages, says Ochavillo.
To arrest TB, the DOH had adopted the WHO recommended Directly Observe Treatment Short (DOTS) course.
For each patient coming to its DOTS centers, the agency offers free diagnosis and treatment amounting to P2,000. (PIA-Bohol)